The conflicts between the rulers and Nausėda have an unpleasant price: Lithuania is unable to appoint an important official
Conservatives are determined to wait how long the president’s order to politically cool the former ministers – Linas Linkevičius and Raimundas Karoblis – will take a long time.
Final negotiations are taking place in Brussels on how European aid will be distributed to the countries. Lithuania’s position on China has raised questions for foreign countries. Lithuania wants as many countries as possible to support in dealing with illegal migrants. These and other issues should be reviewed by the Lithuanian Ambassador in Brussels. But there will soon be a year and a half when the country does not have such an official.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s already going on for too long. We really need our representative, ”the Speaker of the Seimas Viktorija Čmilytė – Nielsen said to LNK.
The government and the president have a contract for this ambassador.
“It simply came to our notice then. And secondly, people after such a rather politicized process, let’s call the process rejected 3 or 4 candidates, just stop registering to participate in the competition, ”says Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
He wants the selection for this position to continue, he says, it’s a combination of 4 or 5 candidates.
The presidency informed LNK news that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not been proposing for 4 weeks.
“The President has proposed to the Government three candidacies for the Lithuanian Ambassador to the European Union, which, unfortunately, were rejected. The President is currently awaiting new proposals for the candidacy of Ambassador from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The last time such a proposal was submitted to the President was almost 4 weeks ago, ”the Presidency informed LNK News.
The search for an ambassador in Brussels was complicated when the Conservatives began to fight with the president so that it was no longer President G. Nausėda but Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė who would attend the meetings of the European leader.
According to the Speaker of the Seimas, the fact that Lithuania does not have one of the most important ambassadors is harmful to the state.
“The reason is probably some kind of disagreement, or some struggle between other branches of government. In this case, they do not benefit, they do harm, ”said V. Čmilytė – Nielsen.
To the LNK’s knowledge, the Conservatives have unsuccessfully proposed to the President Simon Šatūnas, who is now temporarily in charge of this embassy, has been appointed permanent ambassador to Brussels. He also nominated L. Linkevičius and R. Karoblis.
President G. Nausėda has said that L. Linkevičius and R. Karoblis need to cool down politically, because they worked as ministers in the Government of Saulius Skvernelis.
“I think it is necessary to cool down at the moment for those who are chilling those diplomats and think calmly. Nevertheless, we are all interested, especially the President, ”says Žygimantas Pavilionis, Chairman of the Seimas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Conservative, to LNK.
From the speeches of the Conservatives, it seems that the ambassador in Brussels will not last long. And that candidates other than L. Linkevičius, R. Karoblis and S. Šatūnas will no longer offer to the President.
“I hope that in the long run we will find a way to encourage those people to participate in the competition again. I will make every effort to resolve this issue sooner or later. Only now is it “later” than before, “Foreign Minister G. Landsbergis predicted.
Industrialists are already worried that the ambitions of Lithuanian leaders may lag behind the whole economy. For example, European support may reach Lithuania later than another country.
“That person would just start to be active now, some procedures would be speeded up,” Vidmantas Janulevičius, the chairman of the Confederation of Industrialists, told LNK.
Minister Landsbergis says the interim ambassador is now working well in Brussels.
“I now have great confidence in the man who works in Brussels, he works well, he is recognized as a de facto acting ambassador,” Foreign Minister Landsberg said.